India does it - MOM Enters Martian Orbit
ISRO's Mangalyaan Milestone: MOM Enters Martian Orbit
MOM has kept its tryst with the red planet as India's space mission to Mars, Mangalyaan has successfully entered the Martian orbit. India's ISRO has also achieved another major triumph through this success of the mission. Due to their hard work and efforts, India has become the first country to succeed on its first Mars mission.
The nation has now joined an elite club of countries which have explored Mars including the US, Europe's ESA and the former Soviet Union. Mangalyaan is a big step forward for India's space programme, apart from an emphatic affirmation regarding its successful development of indigenous, homegrown technology. With this massive success, scientists from India's ISRO have accomplished what very few nations have been able to do so far.
PM Narendra Modi applauded the hard work of the scientists and spoke of how “History has been created by our scientists.” He also appreciated the efforts that went into making Mangalyaan a marvellous success and also mentioned in his speech of how “We have dared to reach out to the unknown.” He also spoke of how this achievement was “thousands time bigger” than successfully winning a cricket tournament.
There were a few tricky moments and close calls which needed the set of equally tricky manoeuvres to overcome, to ensure that the spacecraft reached its designated orbit around Mars. The insertion commenced at 4:17 am early in the morning. Mangalyanan switched over to the medium gain antenna for gaining the communication link during the insertion. The spacecraft then initiated forward rotation processes to reduce speed at around 6:56 am. It was at 7:17 am that the scientists fired the liquid apogee motor. This motor had been woken up for 4 minutes before to test it.
This time, the motor was fired for 24 minutes leading to a reduction in the velocity of the spacecraft by around 4.2 km per second in conjunction to Mars. Tense moments ensured but around 7:45 am communication with the spacecraft ensued and data flashed following the performance of the liquid apogee motor. All's well that ends well and this was a major achievement for the ISRO scientists who had worked extremely hard for the success of this mission.
Facts About the Mission
1. The MOM or Mars Orbiter Mission was up against a tough challenge. Of the 51 missions to Mars attempted so far, only 21 have succeeded. The first successful mission to Mars was by NASA's Marine 9 in the year 1971.
2. The most recent mission to Mars which failed was that of China's Yinghou-1 in the year 2011. MOM covered a 9 month journey to reach the Martian orbit. It was launched aboard the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-25 Rocket.
3. Mangalyaan will explore the Martian surface, its landscape as well as mineralogy and environment. Its outer atmosphere and CH4 emission will also be studied via Mangalyaan. There are 5 solar powered instruments on Mangalyaan which will determine how the weather system in Mars works and how water which once was thought to be on the planet disappeared.
4. At the closest point of the mission, MOM will be a mere 365 km away from the planet's surface, and it will be at its furthest at 80,000 km.
5. Mangalyaan is the cheapest mission of around $75 million as compared to the price tag of Maven which is around $671. For now believers in science and not the supernatural had something to cheer about as they joined together to watch the news.
6. More can be learnt about MOM's journey at http://www.isro.org/ and http://webcast.isro.gov.in/.
7. Confirmation about the successful start of the engine burn reached earth at 10 PM EDT or around 7:30 IST.
From then onwards, the mission went from strength to strength culminating in its ultimate triumph, a wonderful achievement for ISRO and India.
